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Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Beyond Me

Truth is . . . Lisa Robertson's Magenta Soul Whip by Lisa Robertson is way out of my league. I'm a person who can enjoy a book of poetry now and again, but I really have no idea what I just read. Robertson's poems are full philosophical references, science and proportion. I am sure she is right, but I am not sure what she said.

Some lines that I liked:

Dirt is tired of giving. We sigh at our expired
work, envious of the luck of our
parents. We walk to the bar with stooped shoulders.

. . . .

You have to realize that a parallel materiality also spontaneously resists our will.
Place here the catalogue of hungers.
Call it the future.

from First Spontaneous Horizontal Restaurant

The woman in your midst may be kneeling or seated or may simply be drawn out of scale.

from Wooden Houses

I found this book on last year's NYT Notable Book List. For the first time in recent memory, I have read all of the books that I added to my TBR list after reading the Notable Book List before the following year's Notable Book List came out! The next list should be out by the end of the month, and I can't wait to see what is on it.

Magenta Soul Whip was heavy and hard. I finished it last night, and immediately picked up Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum. Compared to Magenta, Those Who Save Us seemed light and childish. Maybe I absorbed more from Robertson than I realized.

Next up: Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum

Still Listening to: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

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About Me

I am an attorney, a compulsive volunteer, a competitive reader, and a ferocious mother. I am so not a runner. However, I am living my life in constant forward motion. I read and review an eclectic selection of books, including mostly books that I find at used book sales and books that I've read about in the NYT want to read. After four years of consistent blogging, I am feeling a little burnt out, and am making no promises about future posts. Maybe this too will pass, and I will return to being a more active blogger. We'll see. In the meantime, feel free to look around. You can get to a clickable list of all of the books that I have ever mentioned in this blog by clicking on that page at the top to your left.